[KineJapan] 100 years of Kinema Junpō

[Gerow Aaron]

Thanks Quentin!

> Except, as mentioned, the Index’s data is volunteered by its members. There are two FIAF members in Japan: the NFAJ (member since 1958) and the Fukuoka City Library (Associate since 2003). Both could have been contributing to the Indexing project in order to reflect the status of Japanese screen journals of record, but seem not to have been.

Yes, you are right. The lack of Japanese film periodicals in the FIAF index is not just due to Eurocentrism, it is largely due to the fact that Japanese FIAF members made a decision not to participate in the indexing project. That might be understandable with Fukuoka, which is pretty small, but it is unfortunate that the NFAJ never did it. I did ask someone there about that some time ago and it seems to have been a combination of lack of money and lack of personnel. But we should also remember that for a long time the major periodical index in Japan, Zasshi Kiji Sakuhin, which is prepared by the Diet Library, ignored film magazines. They picked up KineJun sometime in the 80s, but it has only been in the last decade that they’ve tried to make up for some of the missing decades. They’ve added a few more magazines, but are still missing many major ones. And even now, the indexing is poor. Instead of indexing each film review, for instance, they’d just create one entry “Japanese Film Reviews” for that section of the issue. 

So I can’t help think that the NFAJ dropping the ball on indexing film magazines is part of a larger national failure to recognize its own film culture and history.

Aaron Gerow
Professor
Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Chair, East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
143 Elm Street, Room 210
PO Box 208324
New Haven, CT 06520-8324
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6729
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu <mailto:aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
website: www.aarongerow.com


















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